Citizen Journalists Challenge Beijing

Chinese authorities and the country’s bloggers are waging an online battle over push-ups. This is no pre-Olympic fitness craze, but attempts by the government to keep a lid on dissent.

Push-ups are what two youths were reported to have been doing on a river bridge in the remote town of Weng’an in Guizhou province on June 21 when a 15-year-old schoolgirl, Li Shufei, fell into the water and drowned.

That at least was the Chinese authorities’ version of events. But residents believe the boys raped the girl before tossing her into the river and that the truth was covered up because the boys are related to local government officials. About 30,000 people gathered in the city centre, overturning police cars and burning the multi-storey police building.